Summer transfer window 2017/18

Bruce has been trying to adjust the delicate balance of a team consisting of players he signed and players he didn't sign.

It's all about the midfield, I think.

Much was made of the fact that we missed Kodjia during our abject run in January, but less is made of the fact that Jedinak was injured throughout most of this run.

He had to persist with Hourihane & Lansbury and we were seriously exposed. As soon as Jedi was fit he was straight back in the starting line up, resulting in more clean sheets than a Chinese laundry (other ethnic groups are available   )

Since then it's been Lansbury or Hourihane, but almost never the twain. Given that Hourihane is supposed to be a deep-lying midfielder, whose tackling stats are equally as impressive as his creative ones, why is it that we only seem to keep clean sheets when Jedi is on the pitch?

To me, the problem must surely be in defence. There must be a weakness there that requires Jedi's presence, that the presence of Hourihane just doesn't fix.

To my untrained eye Chester looks assured. So is Baker the problem? I don't think he's done a lot wrong tbh. Or is it that Hutton just makes too many mistakes and the CB's get pulled out of position too much, cleaning up his shit? Maybe Bree isn't quite there yet and Bruce will look for a ready-made RB to sort this out.

This is Bruce's biggest headache for me. A back four that doesn't need to be baby-sat, that frees up some midfield creativity, that gets us scoring more goals, that gets us out of the Championship.

deadbuzzardalive wrote:I haven't seen it myself but apparently Bruce has said that it's going to be a busy summer with a big player turnaround.

Yep, I heard it on BBC WM too which suggests the "plans" him and Wyness spoke about in previous interviews have suddenly changed now? Because I distinctly remember them saying we'd only get "two or three players in and it will be a quiet summer". But I guess after seeing our struggles in the attacking third this season they have no choice but to address this in the next window. Like I've said before we could potentially have up to 40-50m coming in through sales, plus the 40m parachute payment. So I think another 25-30m could easily be spent in the next window and instead of bringing in "two or three players" I think we need at least another six tbh.

One player I've got a feeling we'll go for is Tom Ince. If we lose Kodjia I think we should try for Abraham on loan, although after the season he's having he might end up at a club at an higher level, or perhaps make it into the Chelsea squad.

As to the question as to why we seem to perform better defensively when Jedinak is on the pitch, I think that's mostly just down to how negatively Bruce sets us up at the moment, if your're play deep inviting pressure then of course someone like Jedinak who's basically a defender playing in midfield is going to thrive in that situation, and players who are more attack minded are going to be less comfortable.

Next season we really need to start taking the game to the opposition, which whilst helping us in attack, will help us in defence too.

For me the issue with defence all along has been the left side. Taylor has rectified that and the number of clean sheets when he plays confirms it although we severely lack any adequate cover in almost any position back there aside from maybe at RB with Bree and don't forget De Leat will be back next season too!

The biggest mess that needs sorting is primarily cover for Baker, Chester and Taylor plus the Keeper issue. Johnson is ok but doubt he'll stay and we have no adequate cover for that position either.

So we need to resolve...

Richards
Elphick
Bunn / Steer
Amavi

So to midfield..

We so badly need cover for Jedinak and there is still something missing in there which i cannot put my finger on. We lack the possession dominance we should expect so do we need a neat & tidy passer like a Scott Parker/ Gareth Barry in there?

I'd say keep
Jedinak
Gardner (decent Squad cover)
Hourihane
Lansbury
Green
Adomah

Jury is out on
Bjarnasson,
Grealish

Strikers:

Keep
Kodija (if possible)
Rushian Hepburn-Murphy (breakthrough season hopefully)

Jury is out on the rest though
Hogan
Gabby

Then we have the loan players to sort out.
Gil
Veretout
Toner
Sanchez
Etc etc

All in all there is a lot of work to be done.

I do think we need a good 5 in personally to have a chance at promotion as we are still some way off.

Keep Gardner and Gabby? I'm baffled. No. McGrath no.

Joppe84 wrote:Keep Gardner and Gabby? I'm baffled. No. McGrath  no.

I hear you Joppe though Gardner recently signed a new deal so can't see him leaving hence squad cover at best for the season. As for Gabby i have him as Jury out..He has 1 year left on contract & no way he'll leave anyway.

The jury isn't out on Gabby. He may have 5 in 9 against blues but he's 1 in 138 against everyone else. If we played Blues 26 times a year then, sure, keep him.

But if he can't bring out the fire and passion, the effort and application every week for the money he's on then get rid.

Thanks for the good seasons years ago. Thanks for the goals against the noses. But unless he takes a MASSIVE pay cut to align him to the standard he plays at then it's time to get rid.

Hogan I'm baffled by. By all accounts a brilliant striker. But then by the same accounts, we have a brilliant midfield.

So the first step for me before we start moving ANYONE, is change our coaching team.

Trotters wrote:The jury isn't out on Gabby. He may have 5 in 9 against blues but he's 1 in 138 against everyone else. If we played Blues 26 times a year then, sure, keep him.

But if he can't bring out the fire and passion, the effort and application every week for the money he's on then get rid.

Thanks for the good seasons years ago. Thanks for the goals against the noses. But unless he takes a MASSIVE pay cut to align him to the standard he plays at then it's time to get rid.

Hogan I'm baffled by. By all accounts a brilliant striker. But then by the same accounts, we have a brilliant midfield.

So the first step for me before we start moving ANYONE, is change our coaching team.

Yes change the coaching from the manager down?

It is telling that the real success story of our buys since Tony brought us is the most selfish non team player in the side? Kodjia scores in spite of the rest of the team?

Plus what has Round done? Well apart from giving a couple of interviews and paying for statisticians to arrive at the most safe manager appointment ever? He needs to justify what is happening on the playing side and transfers?

The Utterer wrote:For me the issue with defence all along has been the left side. Taylor has rectified that and the number of clean sheets when he plays confirms it although we severely lack any adequate cover in almost any position back there aside from maybe at RB with Bree and don't forget De Leat will be back next season too!

The biggest mess that needs sorting is primarily cover for Baker, Chester and Taylor plus the Keeper issue. Johnson is ok but doubt he'll stay and we have no adequate cover for that position either.

So we need to resolve...

Richards
Elphick
Bunn / Steer
Amavi

So to midfield..

We so badly need cover for Jedinak and there is still something missing in there which i cannot put my finger on. We lack the possession dominance we should expect so do we need a neat & tidy passer like a Scott Parker/ Gareth Barry in there?

I'd say keep
Jedinak
Gardner (decent Squad cover)
Hourihane
Lansbury
Green
Adomah

Jury is out on
Bjarnasson,
Grealish

Strikers:

Keep
Kodija (if possible)
Rushian Hepburn-Murphy (breakthrough season hopefully)

Jury is out on the rest though
Hogan
Gabby

Then we have the loan players to sort out.
Gil
Veretout
Toner
Sanchez
Etc etc

All in all there is a lot of work to be done.

I do think we need a good 5 in personally to have a chance at promotion as we are still some way off.

You can rest assured that Hogan and Bananason will be staying, they are Bruce's buys in January and will be here for next season. They have to be, really. There doesn't appear to be much to sort out with regard the loans you mention aside from agreeing fees, as none of them want to play English Championship football and so we need to get them gone. I think a deal has already been put in place for Sanchez? Toner will remain a Villa player, though I think he might go out on loan once more. If any sort of offer came in for Gabby then I'd hope he took it, maybe MLS or something similar, China perhaps? I do suspect, however, that we'll be stuck with him into next season. Ditto Richards. Both of those have been on unofficial testimonial seasons for about 3yrs now. Villa has been something of a retirement village over the last few years.
As mentioned by myself previously and by trotters above we have to get the coaching side sorted, as we've apparently had the better players on offer and cannot string anything remotely like a fluid looking team together on the pitch. This has to change.
I'm assuming McCognac will be moved on at a great loss, I think we'll likely lose half of our outlay shifting him, if we can at all. Hopefully his fellow Scot Moyes at Sunderland will rescue him and us by giving him a chance in the North East.
Grealish will be here next season, I'd say it could be his last chance to cement his position as a serious player. Let's hope he picks the baton up. Bunn should be moved on and a permanent No.1 GK signed with Steer as back up.
It'll be mostly players going out this summer I would imagine, with perhaps around 4 coming in.

I don't think we need that many. The most interesting bit is how we handle the outgoings. Personally I'm done with Bacuna, Gabby and Gardner. I'm inclined to give Grealish another season, though that's his last chance to show something.

Incomings I'd say a goalkeeper that's not a loan. If that's our current loanee on a permanent deal that's fine with me.
Secondly we need to find a young replacement for Jediknackered.

Don't think we need a striker if we can keep Kodjia. Hopefully RHM can do his bit.

Whether he's what we need I'm not sure, but Peter Whittingham is out of contract at the end of the season, and apparently got emotional at the end of their last home game. He'll be 33 in September, but for a free transfer wouldn't be a bad addition, seven goals and seven assists this season.

We can't decide anything until the new manager arrives????

John Ruddy has been released by Norwich, might be someone to consider.

We're linked to Jermaine Defoe. Would be funny for nothing else but watch Sunderland fans go apeshit. They still are butthurt about Darren Bent.

There's no way we're going to sign Defoe, he'll end up somewhere like West Ham or Newcastle. It's just the Birmingham Mail making a story out of the fact that some bookie has him at 8-1 to join us, they made exactly the same story with small heath as well, it's just 'click bait' really.

I can't help think that playing Jedi is causing a lot of our problems, as since he sits deep the rest of the midfield has to work around him. If we play a 4-4-2 we're buggered as in the best case scenario this season we have Adomah on the right doing what he does best and then unless Green is on the left, a player out of position and then a Lansbury or Gardner trying to cover all of our central midfield duties, if you see what I mean. I'd much rather see Hourihane and Lansbury given a few games to do what they do best but it's not going to happen if Bruce's (assuming it's his) game plan is to put 9 or 10 players in our half defending with one or two strikers up front fed only by long balls from the goalie. We can afford Jedi if we play a 4-1-4-1 but then where does Bruce's buy Hogan come into it?

I agree with everyone else about the goalie and keeping Steer in backup. We do also need to sell or swap Elphick. Get rid of the Bacunas etc. Surely the best buy is going to be someone who can actually get the players we have playing properly? If not, we can buy as many players as we like but it's not going to change anything.

Bruce has confirmed tha Sánchez is going to Fiorentina permanently because of a clause in his loan deal that's been triggered, and Kozák has been released by the club.

he's also said we need to strengthen in all areas.

Surely that will save us a stupid amount of wages

What do you think of Ollie Watkins at Exeter?

Joppe84 wrote:What do you think of Ollie Watkins at Exeter?

I thought we were supposed to be interested, he knows where the net is too, it would be worth a punt for me.

Saunders82 wrote:

Joppe84 wrote:What do you think of Ollie Watkins at Exeter?

I thought we were supposed to be interested, he knows where the net is too, it would be worth a punt for me.

Seems highly rated so I would say let's get him in.

We do got Hogan, Kodjia and RHM, but with Kozak going out and hopefully McCormack then we could afford one gamble

Will be interesting to see how much we spend and how many we go for, I think it will be more than the four mentioned by Wyness. Hopefully they make a difference and we can have a much better campaign next season.

Reckon we could try and get Bakary Sako? Green is ace, but we need someone to rotate with him. Amavi is pish